Yesterday was bizarre. Early in the morning, while sitting in my car (getting ready to take my dog out) I observed a white male jogger stop near where our neighborhood coyote was lying hidden in the bushes. He was angry and started waving his arms menacingly as he quickly walked towards the bush.

The coyote froze for some reason. The man in a very angry tone started shouting, ”Get outta here you nasty thing”. Next he started kicking the bush.I jumped outta the car & asked the man to leave the coyote alone — that he had been injured. He said, “Lady I don’t have to”.

At that point a Mom driving her daughter to school, stopped her car. She willingly took the time to talk to this man. She walked up to him and said she had seen what was going on and wasn’t going to leave until he did. What a gal! She was spectacular. Her name is Lisa. We exchanged phone numbers. At that point, she persuaded the man to leave. She is very fond of our neighborhood coyote as well — as appear to be most folks as they get to know about him!!

THEN, a neighbor, Jake, who lives across the street came out and said he wanted to help. He had seen the incident unfold while he was getting dressed for work. What is great here is how our neighbourhood community positively responded when we saw a mean person trying to hurt a wounded coyote.I am proud of my community for quickly defending our wild neighbour whom we have become deeply fond of.

In this video, a coyote who begins her evening trekking routine, is spotted by a dog and harassed. After sprinting to escape him, she uses her wits to avoid a face-to-face confrontation. Although the dog may look as though he’s close to the coyote’s size, the dog easily outweighs her in heft by about double.

I have read where, to escape from pursuing wolves (which weigh two to three times as much as a coyote), coyotes will run up and down hills. A coyote is light, so running up a hill doesn’t take nearly as much effort for them as for a wolf. The wolf, who needs to expend much more energy going up the hill, wears out quickly and soon gives up the chase. Coyotes are able to figure this out and use hills strategically for their advantage.

Please also note that, although the coyote was able to wear out the dog totally, it also was exhausting for the coyote. She collapsed in the grass for a long time in order to recover. This amounts to harassment of wildlife and is actually illegal. Please don’t allow your dogs to chase our urban coyotes!.

Here is our new Spanish educational video specifically for youth — 5th through 8th graders — but fun for everyone! I was asked to create this for some of the Spanish immersion classrooms here in San Francisco. The English edition should be up next week. Students who really want to learn about coyotes AND improve their language skills, will be able to toggle between the two videos.

And we encourage EVERYONE, student or not, youth or not, to create the projects suggested at the end of the video to share with others! It’s only through sharing that people will learn what they need to know to coexist amicably with the wildlife which not long ago began moving into our urban areas.

Ana Bayat, who is a playwright, actress and voice-over artist, and who lives in my neighborhood, provided the narration. Thank you, Ana!